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kuih (plural: kuih mueh): local, traditional-style cakes and morsels that use native ingredients and are generally sweet, occasionally savoury, and sometimes both. typical main ingredients are some form of glutinous rice, coconut, and gula melaka (palm sugar). you can find them anywhere there is food; in kl, there is food everywhere.

i had more than my share of different kuihs, not all of them photographed as they were more important as food than as models. here are some of the ones that didn't get gobbled down straightaway.

after our dinner, miss boo took me to a market area of kampung baru, where she bought me putu bambu, very similar to the filipino puto bumbong, which are also steamed in pieces of bamboo. small lengths of bamboo are cut down, and a dryish glutinous rice flour mixture is packed into them. they are placed upright onto a special steamer. once they are done, they are pushed out of the bamboo length, topped with fresh coconut and gula melaka, and the process is repeated endlessly into the night. these were lighter in flavour and texture than the filipino version (mainly because the pinoy version adds ube, or purple mountain yam), but just as delicious.

pulut inti is a cute little pyramid of steamed glutinous rice, topped with a mound of coconut and gula melaka. the thing that sets it apart from the rest is the unique shape, and the fairly equal ratio of coconut to sugar to rice.

pulut udang is similar to the pinoy suman, in that it is glutinous rice steamed in banana leaf, but it contains a sweet-savoury filling of chopped dried prawn or anchovy, mixed with a bit of sugar. a little odd, but tasty combination.

my favourite of all of them, however, would have to be the kuih ketayap--a small pandan flavoured crêpe wrapped around a gula melaka and coconut filling. there's something about the moist, spongy pancake in contrast with the nutty, sweet interior that i really enjoyed. if anyone has a recipe for this, send it my way!

i have more photos...somewhere....will have to add them on as i come across them....

Gosh, everything is beautiful... that last item sounds especially delicious. I got to try a pandan-flavored something several years ago (forget what it's called - a sort of coconut jam) - anyway, I loved it! I remember Renee saying that to Singaporeans, pandan was a flavor so familar, it was like vanilla. To me of course, it's exotic - but in a comfy, friendly way. Mmmmmm!

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DISCLAIMER: this is a personal journal with no desires to be anything but. it contains my opinion with occasional fact thrown in; recipes have been tested where noted, in an unairconditioned kitchen in the tropics. YMMV. for my sake and yours, consult a professional!